Tough to say which is more tedious, the dated jokes about those libertines in L.A. or the dated jokes about wide-eyed Southerners shocked by the doings of big city folk. Together they make an altogether plodding sitcom that would have seemed trite during the Reagan Administration.

Reba McEntire deserves much better than “Malibu Country,” a slightly desperate-feeling ABC sitcom premiering Friday (locally at 7:30 p.m. on Channel 7). As a political wife who declines to stand by her (cheatin’) man, Reba Gallagher (McEntire) determines to take the kids and her cranky mom, and strike out for the Coast to seek her dream of musical stardom.

Throw in Lily Tomlin as the nagging mother with a taste for medicinal edibles, too many uninspired jokes about drugs and sex, and you’ve got a forgettable half-hour.Read more…

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.